Fuel rod problem in Japanese nuclear plant

Japan's nuclear regulator has confirmed an incident involving bent fuel rods at the world's largest atomic plant in the country's north-west.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has confirmed that a pair of fuel rods was touching as a result of a deformation in a bundle of rods in a fuel pool at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant.

The complex is the world's largest atomic plant with seven reactors and is run by TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The regulator says the deformation could have caused the rods to heat up. The incident was reported by TEPCO, and the regulator has described it as a level-one incident, the lowest on the seven-point international scale.